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| Welcome to our newly renovated laundry room. |
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| Sorry it is so bright but the lighting was a challenge. I could not turn the overhead lighting off and with it on it is really bright. I need to get lower watt bulbs. Let me start off by saying that I am NOT including our new washer and dryer in my renovation total. They were replaced on necessity and had no bearing on my decision to change things up in here. After the new washer and dryer arrived the first thing I did was paint. To save money I picked out my color and then went to WalMart and had them color match it for me. I am the only one who uses this room so I did not feel the need for a $30 gallon of paint. Paint and supplies cost me about $20. The color is called Autumn Haze by Glidden. It is a great creamy neutral. |
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| I was able to talk The Hubster into taking down our fluorescent light. I hunted high and low for a new light for in here to no avail. Nothing really jumped out at me. Last week I came across a french chandy and two matching sconces for just $86 for all three on the local yard sale site. What I ended up doing after bouncing ideas around and talking to my mama was to take down the chandy that was in our dining room and place it in here. To be fare I will say that it cost me $43 for a new light for in here. I just split the cost of the new chandy for the dining room and sconces in half. |
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| Back in December I won a $250 gift certificate to a local decor shop Laurie's. This architectural piece was one of the things that I purchased with it. I had no idea where I was going to put it but after I took down the vinyl saying I had on the wall up there this turned out to be the perfect spot for the piece. Cost to me free. |
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| I painted our cabinets with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that I already had on hand from other projects. I used Country Grey and Vintage White. Cost to paint cabinets nothing since I already had the paint. |
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| I changed out the cabinet knobs which I already on hand as well. Whenever HobbyLobby has 50% off knobs I always snag some for a rainy day. If I had not already had them it would have cost me less than $7 for all four. |
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| I made my own chalk board labels with supplies on hand. |
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| I have had this decorative self feeder for awhile now just waiting for a use. It dawned on me that it would be perfect to hold my fabric softener sheets. BEFORE anybody points it out YES I already see that I spelled softener wrong!;) I just didn't have time to correct it. Once I do I will replace the pic. |
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| I took down two of the iron pieces I had up here and replaced them with mirrors I had bought back in July when antiquing with my mama. They were just laying around collecting dust. |
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| I love the detail on them! |
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| I put back up my drying racks. These originally came from HobLob. |
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| I already had this french linen looking table runner and decided it looked perfect in here. I bought it a few weeks back at HomeGoods for just $12. I did not include it in my $100 total though because I already had it on hand. |
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| My mama had bought me this vintage baptism gown back in July. It use to hang on the back of the guest room door. |
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| I spent $13 on lumber to create faux wood beams. |
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| The old window use to hang in our master bath and I had all the supplies already on hand for the wreath. |
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| I already shared how I transformed this vintage dresser into a retreat for our Little Lady's kennel. If you missed that post you can see it here. |
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| Cost for that makeover was nothing since I already all of the supplies on hand again. These knobs are from HobLob and are my favorite! |
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| I spent $25 on iron brackets from HobLob and lumber to create the new shelving. |
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| Frame from my frame collection and flowers I have had since our first home back in 2002. |
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| Rustic bird cage I bought back in the fall. |
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| Vintage cow I bought back in the summer. Can you tell I love cows!;) |
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| Little gold frames my mama gave me for Christmas. |
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| Vintage scale I purchased back in July. |
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| Old washboard that I had in here previously. I just turned it around because I liked the black writing on it instead of the red that is on the other side. |
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| Note that my before pic here is really awful. I could not find one where I had the new accessories and stuff in there from the previous makeover in 2010 so trust me when I say it did look much better than that. You can see more pics of what the laundry room looked like before here. |
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| $100 later and lots of sweat equity I have the laundry room of my dreams and you can too! Just come up with a vision for your space by browsing places like blogs, FaceBook, HomeTalk, and Pinterest. After months of browsing inspirations my final inspiration came from the blog Faded Charm. I fell head over heels for Kathleen's laundry room. You can see it here. Next just look around your house for items you already have on hand and hunt down bargains for the items you do not. It may take a little longer but trust me it will be well worth it in the end! |
This was the office back in February. It was pretty much just a catch all for the Christmas decor that needed sorting and the boxes we had yet to unpack since the move.
Here it is today! Come on in won't you?!:)
I am just thrilled how well the book cases turned out. They truly almost met a fate of sitting at the curb side. I was soo frustrated with them but determination prevailed and they turned out great I think. Now I am on the hunt for some fabulous knick knacks to fill those shelves. I am so bad abt figuring those out though so I am sure it will be awhile till I have them all filled up. I am also still loving the suede paint on the feature wall. You can read all about it here.
Here is a look at what the cases looked like before the redo. They are made of particle board and the previous owners had attempted to paint them black without putting primer on them first. This picture actually makes them look 100 X better than they actually were. The black was actually a gray black. The paint was peeling and glopped on. They were truly just a mess but for $50 I had faith I could work with them. Next time I know to just start from scratch or buy new says The Hubster! Ha!
Here I tried to get a pic of everything and at the same time tried to show how high the ceiling is in here. I love my curtains I had found at Tuesday Morning. They were just $9.99 a panel. I think I am going to add trim to the inside edge of them though. I stole the F from another place in the house. I think it added a much needed dimension to the wall.
I was trying to get the rug in a pic here. It is truly one of my faves as well.
This is the not so nice wall but now that the book cases are in place The Hubster can start unpacking all of his crapolla. Ha!:)
The book cases were a pain because I was simply just hard headed and instead of stripping the bad paint job the previous owners did I just painted over it. I figured I could not make um any worse. I lucked up and found a brown Opps paint that cost all of $5 at Lowes and got to work. I was not happy with the end result so I added a glaze of a deeper brown on top. Then I thought they would make the office too dark so I painted the back of the cases Whole Wheat and then added the brown glaze. To make them more custom I purchased those little scrolly iron headers at HobLob.
Next we purchased some trim at Lowes which was the most expensive thing abt the darn book cases and added it to the edge of the shelving. I think it really adds to the custom feel so $16 well spent. It makes me forget they are actually just particle board. Ha! 
This was a little splurge as well at $68 but after seeing it at The Hanger Hotel earlier in the year The Hubster and I agreed we needed one for the office. I did use a gift card for it so really we only paid abt $20 for it. I added the Harlequin wrapping paper to the bottom shelving...yeah I said wrapping paper. The bottom level is just awful with bubbled up spots and all. All I could think of was to place this Harlequin pattern on it. At first I attempted to decoupage it but that was a frustrating no go. Three attempts later I just busted out the glue gun and tada. The Hubster says we may get some plexi glass cut to put over top of it to keep it from ripping up. Who knows.
I love my lil' Fleur De Leis tie backs that I found at HobLob a few months ago. I was not sure where I was going to use them and then it dawned on me how perfect they would be in here. Actually a lot of things just ended up in here as the office evolved.
Last but not least I hung The Hubsters antique putter above the doors. The ceiling is so high that I will probably add something else above it eventually but for now it will do. And see that empty frame on the wall over the bench in the foyer? Yep, that is where I stole the F from! Now I am brainstorming on what to replace it with. So there ya have it. Our new french country inspired office make over for less than $240!! That's right that is all we spent on it. The decor was mostly items I had around the house already or had purchased and put away not knowing where I was going to use them. Even with that said total we spent maybe $300 if that. The "desk" was free so the most expensive thing in there was the rug from Costco and it only cost $70! Budget decorating gives me such a high! Good thing there is not an intervention for it! Ha! 
Oh, and not that this has anything to do with the office but I just had to throw it in here too! It makes me HomeGoods happy which is where I found it!
P.s I am linking up to Metamorphosis Mondays over at Between Naps On The Porch! Head on over and look at all the wonderful links there!
This is a before and sorta completed chandy shade. 
Here are all of the chandy shades 100% completed! I love how they turned out. At first I was just going to place that smaller trim at the top of the shades but then decided it looked even nicer with it paired up with the ball trim. Thankfully the smaller trim was only $1.26 because I purchased over 6 yards of it!:)
This pics is from wayyyyyyyyy back last fall when I was still trying to figure out window treatments for the breakfast room. That material will soon become aprons but I digress. See that lamp up there on the pie safe? It has tiny little bright red beads all round the bottom. They did not match the lamp what so ever.
I chopped off the little red beads and added the same trim from the chandy to this shade as well plus several others thru out the house just to tie things in together.
HobLob lamp in the living room which I loved but was kinda blah.
Blah shade now updated. Sorry for the poor pic quality. The light was streaming thru the window too much for the camera....yeah, it is the cameras fault!;)
Here is a lamp we purchased at Lowes. It is actually a pair of buffet lamps. I love the little sage colored bow on it. 
Here it is today. I am trying to find some antique looking pin or something to add to the center of the bows.
Now this shade needs some loving but I am lost on what to do with it. I am afraid to add color to it but at the same time I do not want to go all black and khaki. Any suggestions?
Here is also another project I have been working on. Key fobs/wristlets! For awhile now I have been wanting to start making some other things than just baby items and so this is what I have come up with so far. I have many other ideas but this was the first idea I wanted to accomplish since I already had all the supplies for um.
I have not listed them in my Etsy shop yet because I want to run to HobLob and get a towel thingy to display them from for pics but if you see one you would like to have just let me know which one. I can shoot ya a PayPal invoice and ship it right out to ya!:) They are going to be $6.50 plus $2.00 shipping. If my new items do well I will be opening a new Etsy shop for all of the grown up goodies!:)
